Keith Olbermann

I’ve grown weary of hearing from the irrational dead enders in Hillary Clinton’s cult of personality. I’m tired of their racist demands that either Obama fold his candidacy and yield to her superior experience or accede to their arrogant demands that she join his ticket. I am deeply offended by their unwillingness to accept Hillary’s defeat and their oft repeated intention to cast a vote for John McCain instead. Moreover, it chaps my hide for the faux feminists in Hillary’s suicide cult that claim to be insulted by Obama’s consideration of another woman.

Moreover, nobody can tell me that a woman Governor who wins four statewide elections in a red state and still manages to govern progressively and with compassion and common-sense shouldn’t be considered to become the first female Vice President of this country.

Kathleen Sebelius is the total package and she happens to be a woman. I share the goal of the White House Project and the feminist community. I supported Carol Moseley Braun when the bulk of the faux feminists pretended that she was neither qualified nor viable. She was both and would have been able to prove that with their support. I didn’t support Hillary Clinton for reasons I’ve already stated in full and won’t rehash them here. But I am sincere in the belief that Obama’s running mate must be a woman. The time has come for a woman to be next in line to become President of the United States and Barack Obama would do well to text-message the name of Kathleen Sebelius to an anxiously awaiting public today.

After two decades in public life, she has just as much to offer as Hillary Clinton, if not more. During her time as Governor of Kansas she has twice reached across the aisle to chose a Republican as a running mate and has governed from the center and been productive while dealing with a Republican legislature. She protected a woman’s right to chose by vetoing draconian legislation, protected the environment by blocking smog producing coal plants, balanced Kansas budgets without raising taxes, protected funding for K-12 education, and as Insurance Commissioner for 8 years, protected consumers by preventing the state’s Blue Cross non-profit from being bought up by a managed care conglomerate that would have jacked up premiums.

It’s hard for me to understand why women who helped Hillary break the glass ceiling in American politics wouldn’t at least want another woman to be considered if their favorite daughter didn’t make the cut. Otherwise, what was the damn point of their efforts? Hiliary’s feaux feminists were the same people who excused Bill Clinton’s serial philandering and humiliation of their feminist icon and now they have the temerity to attempt to crucify Barack Obama, a man who has never publicly humiliated his wife by straying, on the cross of sexism. Please tell me that you see the racist double-standard in that.

I’m with Robert Schlesinger on this one. It is insulting to all the women in public life to suggest that all they bring to a ticket is gender and particularly insulting to the woman who made the final four, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius. Moreover, to answer Schlesinger’s rhetorical question of whether the women’s movement should be subsumed to one woman’s movement? I think the answer is clear. It cannot be and should not be.

I am a little spent today and not able to be coherent. But did y’all see Keith Olbermann last night? He gets it. He gets it. Somebody send him a certificate of Negro membership. He tore Senator Clinton, a woman he respects and admires, a new one last night over Geraldine Ferraro’s racial remark about Barack Obama. Ain’t seen nothin’ like that in a minute. I’ve watched it over and over and I can’t get over how thoroughly he sets the record straight. I am in awe.

On another note, folks are blowing me up looking for Barack Obama’s Pastor, Jeremiah Wright. The Senior Pastor of Obama’s church made some comments that are getting attacked. What do you think?

OBAMA SPEAKS FOR HIMSELF

Hat Tip: Huffington Post

The pastor of my church, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who recently preached his last sermon and is in the process of retiring, has touched off a firestorm over the last few days. He’s drawn attention as the result of some inflammatory and appalling remarks he made about our country, our politics, and my political opponents.Let me say at the outset that I vehemently disagree and strongly condemn the statements that have been the subject of this controversy. I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies. I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it’s on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Rev. Wright that are at issue.

Because these particular statements by Rev. Wright are so contrary to my own life and beliefs, a number of people have legitimately raised questions about the nature of my relationship with Rev. Wright and my membership in the church. Let me therefore provide some context.

As I have written about in my books, I first joined Trinity United Church of Christ nearly twenty years ago. I knew Rev. Wright as someone who served this nation with honor as a United States Marine, as a respected biblical scholar, and as someone who taught or lectured at seminaries across the country, from Union Theological Seminary to the University of Chicago. He also led a diverse congregation that was and still is a pillar of the South Side and the entire city of Chicago. It’s a congregation that does not merely preach social justice but acts it out each day, through ministries ranging from housing the homeless to reaching out to those with HIV/AIDS.

Most importantly, Rev. Wright preached the gospel of Jesus, a gospel on which I base my life. In other words, he has never been my political advisor; he’s been my pastor. And the sermons I heard him preach always related to our obligation to love God and one another, to work on behalf of the poor, and to seek justice at every turn.

The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation. When these statements first came to my attention, it was at the beginning of my presidential campaign. I made it clear at the time that I strongly condemned his comments. But because Rev. Wright was on the verge of retirement, and because of my strong links to the Trinity faith community, where I married my wife and where my daughters were baptized, I did not think it appropriate to leave the church.

Let me repeat what I’ve said earlier. All of the statements that have been the subject of controversy are ones that I vehemently condemn. They in no way reflect my attitudes and directly contradict my profound love for this country.

With Rev. Wright’s retirement and the ascension of my new pastor, Rev. Otis Moss, III, Michelle and I look forward to continuing a relationship with a church that has done so much good. And while Rev. Wright’s statements have pained and angered me, I believe that Americans will judge me not on the basis of what someone else said, but on the basis of who I am and what I believe in; on my values, judgment and experience to be President of the United States.

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A debate moderated by Keith Olbermann will be held tonight at 7:00 pm on MSNBC. I expect it to be off the chain. Stay tuned to this space to for my impressions after.

My initial impressions are these: Obama won the debate by counterattacking the Dodd and Hillary tag team on Pakistan. Regardless of the sensibility of forecasting a strike on Pakistan necessitated by “actionable intelligence,” and Musharraf intransigence, people are ready for aggressive military action against the 9/11 attackers since the B.S. in Baghdad hasn’t worked.

Hillary’s widenening poll lead is clearly frustrating her rivals and some, like Chris Dodd, seem to be positioning themselves to be a part of the Clinton troika as Vice President.

Next, I was surprised by Kucinich and how clear and consise he was last night. That was a refreshing change from his insistence to “text peace.”

The question on health care from the disabled retiree was very moving and brought the entire stadium to its feet. I was moved to tears on that one and could really feel his pain. “But for the grace of God go I,” I thought.

Juxtaposed with Hillary’s refusal to ban pack contributions from her coffers, it was a real stark contrast and underscored the corrupt nature of our politics and the seeming powerlessness of our people to do something about it.

After it was all over and I had a chance to reflect, I feel absolutely dejected. There is almost nothing I can do, it seems, to flip the script and the corporate strings that will inevitably entangle the presumptive nominee.

Keith Olbermann was full of good humor but it lacked the pizzazz of one his comment monologues. I’m almost ready to say that we would be better off as a nation with him leading us. Most of the so-called candidates just don’t impress me. This will probably be the last debate that I watch for the balance of the summer because this race is bout’ over.

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“Only this president, only in this time, only with this dangerous, even messianic, certitude, could answer a country demanding an exit strategy from Iraq by offering instead an entrance strategy for Iran. Only this president could look out over a vista of 3,008 dead and 22,834 wounded in Iraq, and finally say, where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me, only to follow that by proposing to repeat the identical mistake in Iran.”

“Only this president could extol the thoughtful recommendations of the Iraq Study Group and then take it‘s most far sighted recommendation, engage Syria and Iran, and transform it into threaten Syria and Iran, when al Qaeda would like nothing better than for us to threaten to Syria, and when President Ahmadinejad would like nothing better than to be threatened by us.”

“This is diplomacy by skimming. It is internationalism by drawing pictures of superman in the margins of the textbooks. It is a presidency of Cliff Notes. And to Iran and Syria, and yes, also to the insurgents in the Iraq, we must look like a country run by the equivalent of the drunken pest, who gets battered to the floor of the saloon by one punch, then staggers to his feet and shouts at the other guy‘s friends, OK, which one of you is next?”

“Mr. Bush, the question is no longer what are you thinking, but rather, are you thinking at all? …You, sir, have become the president that cried wolf. All that you say about Iraq now could be gospel. All that you say about Iran and Syria now could be prescient and essential. We no longer have a clue, sir. We heard too many stories. Many of us are as inclined to believe you just shuffled the director of national intelligence over to the State Department because he thought you were wrong about Iran. Many of us are as inclined to believe you just put a pilot in charge of the grounds wars in Iraq and Afghanistan because he would be truly useful in an air war next door in Iran.”

“Your assurances, sir, and your demands that we trust you, have lost all shape and texture. They are now merely fertilizer for conspiracy theories. They are now fertilizer indeed. The pile has been built slowly and with seeming care. I read this list last night before the president‘s speech, and it bears repetition, because its shape and texture are perceptible only in such a context.”

“Before Mr. Bush was elected, he said nation building was wrong for America. Now he says it is vital. He said he would never put U.S. troops under foreign control. Last night he promised to embed them in Iraqi units. He told us about WMD, mobile labs, secret sources, aluminum tubes, yellow cake. He has told us the war in necessary because Saddam was a material threat, because of 9/11, because of Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda, terrorism in general, to liberate Iraq, to spread freedom, to spread democracy, to prevent terrorism by gas price increases, because this was a guy who tried to kill his dad, because 439 words into that speech last night he trotted out 9/11 again.”

Damn, Keith, I almost feel like I need to help Dubya find the shattered pieces of his face you sent crashing to the floor. Another example of why Keith Olbermann is the real “King of All Media.”

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“There is tonight no political division in this country that he and his party will not exploit , nor have not exploited; no anxiety that he and his party will not inflame. There is no line this president has not crossed-nor will not cross-to keep one political party in power. He has spread any and every fear among us in a desperate effort to avoid that which he most fears-some check, some balance against what has become not an imperial, but a unilateral presidency. ”

And now t is evident that it no longer matters to him whether that effort to avoid the judgement of the people is subtle and nuanced or laughably transparent. Sen. John Kerry called him out Monday. He did it two years too late…Senator Kerry , as you well know, spoke at a college in Southern California. With bitter humor he told the students that he had been in Texas the day before, that President Bush used to live in that state, but that now he lives in the state of denial.

“He said the trip had reminded him about the value of education-that “if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq,” The Senator, in essence called Mr. Bush stupid…And Mr. Bush and his minions responded by appearing to be too stupid to realize that they had been called stupid. They demanded Kerry apologize to the troops in Iraq. And so he now has…Thus, the president will now begin to the apologies he owes our troops, right?”

“This President must apologize to the troops for having suggested , six weeks ago, that the chaos in Iraq, the death and the carnage, the slaughtered Iraqi civilians and the dead American service personnel, will , to history, “look like just a comma.”

“This president must apologize to the troops because the intelligence he claims led us into Iraq proved to be undeniably wrong. This president must apologize to the troops for having laughed about the failure of that intelligence at a banquet while our troops were in harms way. This president must apologize to the troops because the streets of Iraq were not strewn with flowers and its residents did not greet them as liberators. This president must apologize to the troops because his administration ran out of “plan” after barely two months. This president must apologize to the troops for getting 2,815 of them killed. This president must apologize for getting this country into a war without a clue.”

Damn, Keith is good.

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From Olbermann’s editorial, “We have handed a blank check drawn against our freedom to a man who has said it is unacceptable to compare anything this country has ever done to anything the terrorists have ever done.

We have handed a blank check drawn against our freedom to a man who has insisted again that “the United States does not torture. It’s against our laws and it’s against our values” and who has said it with a straight face while the pictures from Abu Ghraib Prison and the stories of Waterboarding figuratively fade in and out, around him.

We have handed a blank check drawn against our freedom to a man who may now, if he so decides, declare not merely any non-American citizens “unlawful enemy combatants” and ship them somewhere—anywhere — but may now, if he so decides, declare you an “unlawful enemy combatant” and ship you somewhere – anywhere.”

“…And if you somehow think habeas corpus has not been suspended for American citizens but only for everybody else, ask yourself this: If you are pulled off the street tomorrow, and they call you an alien or an undocumented immigrant or an “unlawful enemy combatant”—exactly how are you going to convince them to give you a court hearing to prove you are not? Do you think this attorney general is going to help you?”